Update: The promo is live.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will be running a 40% discount on award flights to celebrate its 40th birthday. Here are the details:
Points Wire Note:
Previously, when Virgin Atlantic has run discounted award rates, it's been possible to include a connection on a partner airline from Paris or Amsterdam on Air France or KLM, respectively. While the connection on a partner airline hasn't received the discount, the Virgin Atlantic flight from London to the U.S. has been.
The benefit of adding the connection is to avoid the Air Passenger Duty (APD) fee when starting your journey from the UK. The APD fee on a business class ticket to the U.S. is over $200.
Chase has increased the welcome offers for 4 of their co-branded United credit cards by 10,000 miles.
United Club Infinite Card
United Quest Card
United Explorer Card
United Gateway Card
Find more info on cards here. I do my best to find the best offers regardless of whether I earn a commission or earn a referral bonus.
Hilton has announced the benefits that will be available to members at Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) properites:
The first SLH properties available via Hilton include:
If you have have the World of Hyatt credit card, you can now earn 4x points per dollar when you stay at a Mr. & Mrs. Smith property. Redeeming Hyatt points for a stay at Mr. & Mrs. Smith properties is still a poor value proposition but at least you can earn more points on cash stays.
Keep in mind that Mr. & Mrs. Smith doesn't own any properties. It is a booking platform that has a collection of luxury hotels. Booking via Hyatt may not be the best way to book these properties as some are part of preferred booking programs like Virtuoso. By booking via one of these preferred booking programs, you can get VIP perks added to your stay.
I'll need to confirm, but it seems like you could still earn 4x when paying at the property when booking via one of these programs.
If you'd like to book your hotel stay with VIP perks, you can submit a request here.
Southwest is out with a promo code that can help you save 25% on award tickets if you book by June 17 and travel by November 20, 2024. The promo code is SAVE25.
Important Terms
Head for Points: "As of this Monday, Virgin Atlantic is selling and putting its own flight numbers on EL AL flights between London and Tel Aviv. This will be reciprocated with EL AL flight numbers on Virgin Atlantic’s flights to Tel Aviv when they relaunch on 5th September."
"Virgin Atlantic has now confirmed that you will be able to use Virgin Points for EL AL flights from 19th June."
Frequent Miler: "We’re not sure how long this has been the case, but awards for travel on American Airlines are now bookable on the Cathay Pacific website. That’s a nice development because you can sometimes score a better deal with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles than via American Airlines themselves."
Nick from Frequent Miler flagged a useful stack for people who use a lot of LifeMiles.
"I tried my best to convince Greg to love Avianca LifeMiles. Just in time to teach him how powerful LifeMiles can be for his last-minute booking needs, Avianca LifeMiles has launched a 15% transfer bonus when transferring from Amex Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles."
"Those who subscribe to LifeMiles+ (or who got the Elite credit card for its free subscription) will enjoy a 10% rebate when redeeming — so the two can combine to make for a really good deal."
Perhaps my biggest pet peeve (on the industry side) in the points and miles world is no-notice devaluations.
Well, it looks like Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has done just that. Tim Ritsema flagged that Virgin devalued its award rates for long-haul business class flights on All Nippon Airways (ANA).
Starting May 23, 2024, these are the new award rates:
The previous business class award rates:
Direct link to Virgin's ANA award chart
Points Wire Note:
ANA has been stingy about releasing premium cabin award space, but this is still annoying. Naturally, Virgin Atlantic announced its new co-branded credit card partnership today.
Virgin Red is launching a co-branded credit card in the U.S. with Synchrony Bank and Mastercard. The new credit card is expected to launch in the second half of 2024.
Bilt Rewards and Capital One Miles already transfer to Virgin Red directly. However, you can also transfer Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Points can be moved between Virgin Red and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
In most cases, your best bet is to use these points for flights.
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